The main quist of the novel is the story about a young teacher Donald Grant. He leaves home after finishing college and starts his journey to make his way in the world to a nearby coastal town in Northeastern Scotland. He meets a shoemaker who becomes his spiritual preceptor, and finds job and place to live in the nearby castle. As the story goes on readers meet a solitary, drug addicted uncle, his pretty but soulless niece, and his spoiled and insolent son who is up to all kinds of naughty flirting with the shoemaker's daughter. The most fascinating and interesting part of this novel is the element of the supernatural which Mr. MacDonald brings in. There are ghost noises, misteries, somnabulisms, secret rooms, murder, scandal, and ghost stories, myths and legends. Ghosts to George MacDonald represent part of the large region of the Spirit which exists beside and beyond everyone of us, and he never posits their actual existence. They are never considered to be the power of evil or fear, because everything in this world exists due to the will of God. There are some parts in the book that are written in Scotch dialect. That's very interesting, and makes the reader to think about what the author meant.
''Donald Grant by George MacDonald'' is worth reading. It is fascinating!